Holland remarks[12] that attention paid to the act of swallowing
interferes with the proper movements; from which it probably follows,
at least in part, that some persons find it so difficult to swallow a pill.

Another familiar instance of a reflex action is the involuntary
closing of the eyelids when the surface of the eye is touched.
A similar winking movement is caused when a blow is directed
towards the face; but this is an habitual and not a strictly
reflex action, as the stimulus is conveyed through the mind
and not by the excitement of a peripheral nerve. The whole body
and head are generally at the same time drawn suddenly backwards.
These latter movements, however, can be prevented,
if the danger does not appear to the imagination imminent;
but our reason telling us that there is no danger does not suffice.
I may mention a trifling fact, illustrating this point, and which at
the time amused me. I put my face close to the thick glass-plate
in front of a puff-adder in the Zoological Gardens, with the firm
determination of not starting back if the snake struck at me;
but, as soon as the blow was struck, my resolution went for nothing,
and I jumped a yard or two backwards with astonishing rapidity.
My will and reason were powerless against the imagination of a
danger which had never been experienced.

The violence of a start seems to depend partly on the
vividness of the imagination, and partly on the condition,
either habitual or temporary, of the nervous system.
He who will attend to the starting of his horse, when tired and fresh,
will perceive how perfect is the gradation from a mere glance
at some unexpected object, with a momentary doubt whether it
is dangerous, to a jump so rapid and violent, that the animal
probably could not voluntarily whirl round in so rapid a manner.
The nervous system of a fresh and highly-fed horse sends its
order to the motory system so quickly, that no time is allowed
for him to consider whether or not the danger is real.
After one violent start, when he is excited and the blood
flows freely through his brain, he is very apt to start again;
and so it is, as I have noticed, with young infants.

A start from a sudden noise, when the stimulus is conveyed through the
auditory nerves, is always accompanied in grown-up persons by the winking
of the eyelids.[13] I observed, however, that though my infants started
at sudden sounds, when under a fortnight old, they certainly did not always
wink their eyes, and I believe never did so. The start of an older infant
apparently represents a vague catching hold of something to prevent falling.
I shook a pasteboard box close before the eyes of one of my infants, when 114
days old, and it did not in the least wink; but when I put a few comfits
into the box, holding it in the same position as before, and rattled them,
the child blinked its eyes violently every time, and started a little.
It was obviously impossible that a carefully-guarded infant could have learnt
by experience that a rattling sound near its eyes indicated danger to them.
But such experience will have been slowly gained at a later age during
a long series of generations; and from what we know of inheritance,
there is nothing improbable in the transmission of a habit to the offspring
at an earlier age than that at which it was first acquired by the parents.

From the foregoing remarks it seems probable that some actions,
which were at first performed consciously, have become
through habit and association converted into reflex actions,
and are now so firmly fixed and inherited, that they
are performed, even when not of the least use,[14] as often
as the same causes arise, which originally excited them in us
through the volition. In such cases the sensory nerve-cells
excite the motor cells, without first communicating with
those cells on which our consciousness and volition depend.
It is probable that sneezing and coughing were originally
acquired by the habit of expelling, as violently as possible,
any irritating particle from the sensitive air-passages.